


Doesn't Sound Like Goodbye

by GretchenSinister



Category: Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: M/M, Multi, OT6, Polyamory
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-14
Updated: 2019-12-14
Packaged: 2021-02-26 04:41:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,285
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21787681
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GretchenSinister/pseuds/GretchenSinister
Summary: Original Prompt: "Anything based on Better Than I Know Myself by Adam Lambert. It makes more sense for it to be a BlackIce thing, but I REALLY wanna see if someone could write a JackRabbit having darker relationship problems with this. I’m cool with either pairing any way.“Better Than I Know Myself”Cold as iceAnd more bitter than a decemberWinter nightThat’s how I treated youAnd I know that II sometimes tend to lose my temperAnd I cross the lineYeah that’s the truthI know it gets hard sometimesBut I could neverLeave your sideNo matter what I say[Chorus:]Cause if I wanted to go I would have gone by now,But I really need you near me toKeep my mind off the edgeIf I wanted to leave I would have left by nowListen to the song here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lg31XQR22zg"(Lyrics have been cut because I don’t want to get a takedown notice for this, how could I ever explain?) Anyway, Pitch does something vague that seems like intentional relationship sabotage. He runs away, but Jack finds him and asks if he really wants to leave, and talks to him about why he shouldn’t feel like he has to.
Relationships: Jack Frost/Pitch Black
Comments: 4
Kudos: 13
Collections: Blackice Short Fics, RotG Polyamory Fics





	Doesn't Sound Like Goodbye

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on Tumblr on 6/14/2015.

“After last night, I’m surprised you’re still here,” Jack said, crossing a snowy clearing to where Pitch stood in the shadow of a tree.  
  
“Why?” Pitch didn’t look at him when he asked. “Here isn’t anywhere. If you count this place, this bit of nowhere, as being still with you, then where can I go to make it clear that I’ve left?”  
  
“So you have left,” Jack said. He didn’t say anything more right away, and Pitch was tempted to just wait, see how long the moment could be drawn out.  
  
“That’s not what I said.” Pitch looked up at Jack, finally. His newest familiar face. The one to seek him out. “But you should notice that I’ve not placed myself somewhere obvious.”  
  
Jack pressed his feet into the snow. “I’ve noticed that. But I’ve also noticed you’ve placed yourself somewhere cold.”  
  
“A weakness, on my part,” Pitch said quietly.  
  
“Well, you’re allowed to have those, you know,” Jack said. “So you haven’t really left. I’m kind of surprised, because it definitely seemed like you wanted to. But you haven’t vanished yet from this meeting, so do you want to talk about it?”  
  
Pitch frowned. “I do. But that would only prolong things, so I’d better not. I should just go right now, actually.” He didn’t move. “I suppose I do need an answer to my question: where can I go where you cannot find me, where no one can find me? After that, I’ll go.”  
  
Jack smiled a little. “Well, if you don’t want to talk, maybe I could. I’m seeing things a little clearer now than I was.”  
  
“I doubt it,” snapped Pitch.  
  
Jack only shrugged. “You sure? I did bring you back, after all. I was the one who spotted you, who noticed you—”  
  
“Yes,” Pitch sneered. “You’re extraordinarily compassionate, a friend to all, bringer of joy, blah blah blah.”  
  
Jack held up a hand. “Not so fast. I didn’t start out looking for you, you know. I ended up in the same lonely places as you by my own choosing. Did you ever think about why I was out there? Well, since you don’t want to talk, I’ll tell you. I was out there because I was trying not to get too attached to the Guardians. I was trying not to get used to—well, being loved. I figured that sooner or later the penny would drop and they’d all realize that, hey, I’m pretty heavily involved in winter, and winter’s not nice! And you know how some parts of the Workshop, like the living spaces, look so new? North didn’t remodel for fun. I destroyed a lot of it.”  
  
Pitch looked surprised for a moment before shaking his head dismissively. “Physical destruction. That’s nothing to the Guardians.”  
  
Jack raised his eyebrows. _You’d know that pretty well, wouldn’t you?_ he thought, but didn’t say. He didn’t want to needle Pitch right now. “Physical destruction is what winter is good at. If I was better at another kind, I’m sure that’s how I would have lashed out. Because I wanted to make sure I controlled when they saw the worst of me, so that if they decided to stop loving me because of it, at least it wouldn’t come as a surprise. But they didn’t. Even when I spent so much time wandering around that I found you.”  
  
“Well, you’re Jack Frost,” Pitch said. “It’s different with you.”  
  
Jack shrugged and nodded. “Sure. Yeah, I bet it is. Have you ever killed anyone, Pitch? I mean, a human.”  
  
“No!” Pitch said at once, offended. “The only person I’ve directly tried to kill…you know that! What could I gain from the death of a human? I need fear, I need belief, and while I have been _present_ at many deaths, because humans fear death, I’ve never hurried it along, if you want to call it that, unless you call the fear response itself something that hastens death, and—” He stopped, noticing Jack nodding.  
  
“That’s what I thought,” Jack said. “But you know what? _I have_. Every blizzard that I made—people have died. And I think that’s kind of worse than fear. But the Guardians—they know that there’s a lot of good in me, and they know I can be better. They know what I’ve done, and still—I’m one of them, now.”  
  
Pitch paused before replying this time. “But you…killing people was never part of your purpose. You’re still a joy-bringer at heart. They’re not asking you to change who you are, not entirely. For me, to be better…is to not be myself. I’m not a Guardian, even now.”  
  
“If you pay attention, Pitch, I swear none of us are asking you to change your center! We—I—just want you to relax enough to see that you can be part of this thing we have, without changing! You don’t have to be a perfect fit all the time! I’ve got plenty of jagged edges myself! You lashed out last night, yeah. And you scared us, but wasn’t that the point? Isn’t that your point? What would the world be like without any fear?”  
  
“More dangerous, I suppose, but I’m still not a Guardian. Not one chosen by the Moon.”  
  
“I was going to say more boring, flatter, less interesting,” Jack said. “We don’t want you with us, I don’t want you with me, because you’re useful. It’s because you’re _you_. Can’t you accept this? I mean, you’re not even here for the first time, right? This is you coming back, and…Pitch. We chose you, I choose you. I don’t care that much about what the moon says, and neither does anyone else. I mean, we can tell he disapproves, and—”  
  
“Wait, you can? I never…but you still…” Pitch frowned.  
  
“I don’t want to lose you, Pitch, even if you still kind of seem like you want to get lost. Ask the others, and I think they’ll tell you that they don’t want to lose you again.” He smiles a little. “I get that you’re scared. I mean, not being lonely is one thing, but having to work out that not-loneliness with five other people? Not being in charge? That’s hard to figure out, no matter how bad you want it. And it’s worse when you think everyone else might not really want you.” Jack sighed. “But I do, and we do. So. You know all about fear. Can you tell that you’re scared, and that even though you scare us, you’re not going to scare us _off_?”  
  
Pitch folded his arms. “I accept that you speak for yourself. But I’m not coming back to everyone unless someone else finds me. I was cruel in what I said, maybe not as fully cruel as I could have been, and if you’re the only one that understands why…then I can’t be around the others. It’s too late.”  
  
“But if someone else finds you?”  
  
“As long as they don’t say you told them to. I’ll be able to tell. They’ll be afraid of letting you down. But if they do…look, if I apologize for this, does that mean I have to apologize for similar things I’m not sorry for?”  
  
Jack laughed. “If you apologize, I think everyone will be too surprised to press the point. So. If?”  
  
“I’d like to see another face soon,” Pitch said quietly.  
  
“I think you’ll see four,” Jack said. He stepped lightly up to Pitch and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek before letting the wind carry him away.  
  
Pitch couldn’t quite hear what he yelled down to him, but he was pretty sure it didn’t sound like goodbye.

**Author's Note:**

> Comments from Tumblr:
> 
> kazechama said: Your OT+ stories are so great. I love Jack and Pitch and this setting so, so much.


End file.
